JELLE

Hi, my name is Jelle Steen and I am a Human Technology student at Friesland College. I took the SEB elective last year, and now I’m on an exchange to Malta through the Entrepreneurs College.

Impressed!

Our first day at Malta was massively impressive. After a good night’s rest our group got up early to prepare for the day. The girls got us breakfast this morning, lucky us! So, when I stumbled out of bed there was fresh bread and jam waiting for me. After we had our breakfast we headed towards the MCAST campus located at Paola. We had no clue about the public transportation, but we were lucky to find ourselves at the campus 30 minutes later. When we arrived at the administrative office there was this huge crowd, we still don’t know what it was exactly but there were guards posted at the entrance and we had to be picked up by Louis. Once inside we properly introduced ourselves, and Louis handed us a folder with some documents.

History!

Lois then gave a presentation about MCAST and Malta and during that he told us some amazing things about the history of Malta. Such as the victory over the Ottoman Empire. Which is the story about how Malta was sold to a bunch of knights that were spared during a war for only two Maltese bird of prey. Then after some time they started robbing merchants on the sea, which made them a threat. Because of that the Ottoman Empire decided to invade Malta. It is said that the Ottoman Empire had an Armada of over 300 ships. The odds were favouring the Ottomans, but they lost regardless. A amazing feat by the Maltese! Look on Wikipedia for more info, it’s brilliant.

After his interesting presentation, we got introduced to a real cool dude: Marcello. Marcello, I think he is just a couple of years older than me, maybe like 27 or something. We got driven from MCAST to Valetta, that is when we were temporarily divided because there was not enough space for all of us in one car. Once we arrived we got shown so many beautiful buildings, which I should have remembered more but I was just too amazed. We went to the Upper barracks which has canons that are still being fired regularly, which is amazing! Sadly enough, I have not witnessed this yet. Then we went on to explore Valetta and it’s shopping streets, which it has numerous of. Marcello treated us to his favourite treat, which is pastizzi, the pastizzi is a pastry dish filled with either ricotta or mushed peas. Not only that, but it is also a euphemism…

A euphemism for the female sexual organ… Judge for yourself I guess.

Marcello continued to show us around Valetta and its beauties. Which are truly amazing. He showed us some places with beautiful panoramic views.

And that just about concludes our first day in Malta, I can only say that I absolutely love it here!

MARTIJN

My name is Martijn, 20, guitarist and I’m from Lemmer.

During quite a good presentation at Mcast about Malta and its rich history we learned how feeble malta’s hold over its own country was. Then we set out into Valletta guided by a man in his late twenties.

We started at a garden with a great view of the harbor and the many fortlike structures in Valletta. Then we continued our tour into the city. Here we encountered unhealthy cheesefilled buns for 30 cents each, stands selling pens, lots of intense sunlight and a crazy dutch guy shouting informal words in the streets.

I guess that such a tour gives you a very good fountation knowledge of the Maltese culture and nice opportunity to ask questions you may have about the island.